The World Cup in Australia and New Zealand showed how far women’s football has come in the last few years. It also showed how few women trainers there are at all levels of the sport.
England’s coach, Sarina Wiegman, is the only woman left on the sidelines as the game moves on to the quarterfinals.
The first Women’s World Cup, which had 32 teams, started with 12 female leaders.
That’s the same number as at the 2019 World Cup in France, where nine of the 24 teams were led by women.
“It’s a problem not just at the international level, but at every level of women’s soccer,” said Randy Waldrum, the American coach of the Nigeria team that lost on penalties to Wiegman’s England in the last 16.
“There should be more women coaching sports.”
In England, where women’s football is very professional, five of the 12 teams in the Women’s Super League ended last season with a woman boss.
In some other places, like the World Cup, women’s football has only just become a professional sport or is still a hobby.
Many people in football think that once women’s football has been around for a while, there will be more women trainers.
“Naturally, there are more male coaches,” Wales boss Gemma Grainger said earlier this year on Sky Sports.
“The men’s game has been professional for a long time, and now we’re seeing male coaches move into the women’s game. That’s where we are right now.”
The number is expected to get better over the next few years, especially if present players decide to become coaches when their careers are over.
Even though the same number of women are coaching at this World Cup as they were four years ago, there are some signs of progress.
Shui Qingxia was the first woman to lead China. She played for China in the first Women’s World Cup in 1991 and was in charge of the team at this tournament.
Wiegman said, “We hope that this balance will be right in the future, and we are working to make that happen, at least in England.”
Wiegman is the best example of a woman boss because her home country, the Netherlands, won the European Championship in 2017 and went to the World Cup final two years later.
Then, with England, she won it again last year.
The Lionesses are the favorites to win the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and if they do, Wiegman will be the third woman coach in a row to win it.
Under Jill Ellis, the USA won the World Cup in 2015 and again in 2019.
Bev Priestman of Canada, Silvia Neid of Germany, and Pia Sundhage of the United States have all led their teams to gold at the last three Olympics.
After the 2003 Women’s World Cup final, the 2019 final was the second to have a woman in each bench.
This won’t happen again because Norway’s Hege Riise, Switzerland’s Inka Grings, and South Africa’s Desiree Ellis all lost in the last 16.
Waldrum, who has spent most of his time coaching women’s college teams in the United States, said that there needed to be funding and a change of attitude.
“It’s not that men shouldn’t coach,” said Waldrum, who also ran Trinidad and Tobago for a while.
“I think we should be able to do it if they love the women’s game and are invested in it, but we definitely need more money put into women and women coaches.”
He said that it was also important to change the old “boys’ club” way of thinking. That women can coach well and are able to do so.”